The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

Booksigning Party in Madison on Monday, April 4th! Co-authors Sally Edwards and Carl Foster will be at Berkeley Running Company to present their new book, "Be A Better Runner."
Posted by kim 03/28/2011

Well we managed to extricate ourselves from Koh Tao last week. The trick is to do it fast and with no warning. We went down to check on tickets to Chiang Mai and found that it was either leave the next day or wait another week for availability, so we booked it and got the next boat off.

Goodells Rule!

Posted by nik 10/21/2008, revised 11/05/2008

Game day! I am not yet sure of my plans for watching the World Cup final - likely just find a bar. Copacabana is packed with chanting Argentinians, which is fun and spirited, but I do not imagine I will want to join the masses at the Fifa FanFest on the beach. Too much for me.

At the end of my Brazil visit. Kind of crazy. In some ways, I can't believe I'm already at the end of the trip, and in others, I feel like I've been here for a long time!

Things I will miss [and will be happy to return to when I come back]:

• acai on every corner
• queijo minas (a wonderful type of cheese)
• tapioca - not what we think is tapioca; its a crepe-type dish popular in the northeast, and it's delicious
• the portuguese language

Things I will not miss:

• the absurdly, inexplicably slow lines at supermarkets (in which I have written this entire post)
• people on their phones when you're sitting with them at a restaurant

Posted by Whitney 07/13/2014